The art offers numerous forms of lawn machinery for which is directed and suited to trim and manicure a lawn surface comprising a variety of grasses, weeds and other natural growths. A self-propelled, rear-mounted powered lawn tractor is one form of lawn machinery specifically equipped and suited to trim and manicure a larger lawn surface and/or address cutting of a lawn surface having overgrown or dense grass growth. This form of lawn machinery, in particular, may include structural provisions for allowing an individual operator to ride atop and along the lawn tractor during grass cutting operations. In most design configurations, the lawn tractor comprises a primary motor rearwardly situated above a set of rear wheels which is functionally directed to turning a plurality of gears and/or belts that simultaneously serves to rotate a set of grass-cutting blades contained within a blade housing or mower deck, generally positioned below a tractor's decking or platform, and turn a set of wheels to propel the lawn tractor in a forward and/or reverse direction. Commonly associated with the blade housing is a chute that serves as a preferentially pathway for emitting and ejecting grass and weed clippings from the blade housing. Due to the inherent limitations of the primary motor and grass-cutting blades operating thereunder to sufficiently advance and emit the grass clippings from the blade housing while cutting dense grass growth or, more importantly, the desire to rid the lawn surface of grass clippings, the lawn tractor, particularly of the type that carries or transports the operator, may be further equipped with a vacuum collector attachment. The vacuum collector attachment in this strict application may comprise means for generating a vacuum or negative pressure and collecting and containing releasable debris in some form of receptacle for transport and later disposal. The vacuum pressure, particularly in this regard, may be developed from a secondary motor that turns an output shaft fitted with one or more impellers housed within a vacuum chamber, sufficiently of which to generate a vacuum or negative pressure capable of removing grass clippings from the blade housing. Supplementing the vacuum chamber of the vacuum collector attachment is a flexible pipe or conduit connected in between the chute and an entry port of the vacuum chamber. In minimizing the loss of developed vacuum pressure, the vacuum chamber's exit port is directly connected to an entry port of an overhead chamber situated atop one or more collector bins. Structural provisions are generally included within the design of the overhead chamber to permit gradual release of pressure after debris is collected within each of the collector bins. As with most typical configurations noted in the art, the vacuum collector attachment and its operable components expressed herein are collectively mounted on a towable trailer to allow for release and convenient storage apart from the lawn tractor, such as the type commercially offered and manufactured by Palmor Products of Thorntown, Ind., as Trac-Vac Model 652.
Although this particular model as well as many of the towable vacuum attachments offered in art may adequately serve to collect and contain grass clipping and the like from the lawn surface, each is generally noted to compromise the handling and operation of the lawn tractor due to an appreciable increase in length arising from its attachment. Additionally, as each of the collector bins becomes filled to capacity, the center of gravity of the lawn tractor and vacuum collector attachment is re-established more rearwardly behind the lawn tractor, thus undesirably contributing to ineffective handling and operation of the lawn tractor, particularly as one manages short-radius turns and/or engages in ascending and descending operational runs. In further respects, the overall length of the lawn tractor when combined with the towable vacuum collector attachment contributes to appreciable reductions of vacuum pressure, primarily due to the increased effective length of the flexible pipe or conduit extending from the chute to the rearward-positioned vacuum chamber and by the over presence of pipe bends along the pipe's route toward the vacuum chamber. Consequently, the pipe's resultant operational length and its bending configuration contribute to periodic clogging of the pipe and/or buildup at one or more pipe bends, thus necessitating disassembly and re-assembly of the pipe's connections for cleaning so that one can restore the free or unrestricted flow of debris within the pipe and ultimately regain proper, efficient operation of the lawn tractor.
Accordingly, there remains a need for a vacuum collector assembly that is most suited for adaptation to a lawn tractor of the type having a motor generally in a rear-mount arrangement, particularly of which contributes to safe and stable operation of the lawn tractor while yielding efficient and comprehensive collection of grass cuttings and other loose debris from the lawn surface without appreciable downtime and extended maintenance requirements.